Jesse Richard Pitts (1921–2003), was an American sociologist specializing in deviance and social control, family sociology, sociological theory, French society, and criminology. He is considered one of the leading disciples of Talcott Parsons, dean of American sociologists for much of the 20th century. Pitts is perhaps best known for his contributions to a large textbook on sociology, Theories of Society: Foundations of Modern Sociological Theory, edited by Parsons and published in 1961. He pioneered sociological work on marginality, deviance and conformity. He was interested particularly in criminology and the institutional treatment of mental illness. Raised on both sides of the Atlantic, Pitts felt at home in France as much as in the United States. He created the Franco-American periodical The Tocqueville Review, serving as editor from 1978 to 1991. Early life Pitts was born in East Palestine, Ohio on June 13, 1921. He was the only child of Howard Earl ("Doc") Pitts (1889–1951), a veterinarian from Marietta, Ohio, who fought in France with the Expeditionary Forces during World War I. Before returning to the States, Doc married Denyse Dinin in Decize. When Jesse (named after Jess Willard, the boxer) was 7, his parents separated and he went to France with his mother. He did not see his father again until a summer vacation in 1937 where he met his numerous cousins in Marietta, Ohio. Pitts developed an early interest in politics in France and, at age 15, joined the communist party and distributed leaflets. At 16, French police turned him back from the Spanish frontier as he sought to join the Spanish Civil War. Harvard and World War II He returned to the United States in 1938 to attend Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Initially interested in economics, he was attracted to sociology by Parsons, who taught at Harvard. Majoring in sociology, with a minor in economics, he graduated magna cum laude in June 1941. At Harvard, Pitts joined the Trotskyites but lost interest in the movement following the fall of Paris to the Nazis in June 1940. He tried to enlist and was placed on a waiting list in Canada but was never called up. After graduation he found a job at Macy's in New York. While he found the job unsatisfying, his roommate Jim Chapin introduced him to Jazz which was thriving in New York City and he truly enjoyed (later he would often start his classes with